Renault F1’s managing director Cyril Abiteboul says the team still has a long way to go before it reaches its objectives.
After a difficult 2015 before Renault’s takeover of the Enstone-based outfit, Renault entered 2016 on the back foot and has struggled to score points.
Kevin Magnussen’s seventh place in Russia is Renault’s only top 10 result of the year so far, but the team remains optimistic it is on the right track.
Abiteboul has admitted there is still a long journey to go before Renault is back in the mix, but he says the team is on track to do so as it starts to shift focus to 2017.
“After a very busy start to the year it was good to take some time to sit back and look at our journey since December 2015,” he said after the summer shutdown.
“In just over eight months we have revitalised two sites, started an aggressive recruitment campaign to build the workforce, initialised a re-build plan for Enstone, scored our first points and laid down some strong foundations for the future.
“Naturally we still have a long way to go until we reach our objectives, but we are on track with the plan to get there.
“Realistically in 2016 we will only be taking small steps as our main focus is now shifting to 2017 and beyond.
“Just before the shutdown we were on the tail of the midfield and able to fight for position; we still have a number of minor planned developments coming on stream in the later races so keeping this level of performance has got to be our objective for Spa and beyond.
“We’re motivated and believe we have the structure and tools to do it. It’s not going to be a walk in the park, but Formula 1 never is.”
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